Biological Perfection
by lemony.club
Summary: On the voyage back to Earth, the interstellar research vessel crashed upon an uncharted world on the fringe of known space, destroying much of their research in the process. One of their specimens managed to survive the deadly crash and began the course that change the history of that world. Will all succumb to the infestation, and what happened when magic is melded with psionic?
1. Chapter 1

**Biological Perfection (Starcraft x GoT)**

Story may contain some games elements.

 **– [Prologue] –**

The blaring siren finally stopped, but the intense heat remained. Amidst the smoldering ruins of twisted metal and shattered glass, something – a worm-like creature with four pair of short, stubby pincers for mouth – began to squirm. It unraveled itself from a defensive, spiky sphere. Curling into a sphere was its natural instinct whenever danger was imminent.

The predatory worm was known as a larva. It was the primal evolution stage of the biological contagion that infested many fertile worlds and killing millions in the sector designated as Koprulu.

The small larva took a brief moment for the shock to its miniscule brain to diminish before scanning the surrounding with its multitude of pitch-black eyes. The room was in a shamble with fire and sparks raged fiercely on every flickering holographic console nearby, and the cylinder imprisoning it for almost a year had been smashed around during the crash landing.

With the glass screen fractured, it slipped through the jagged opening and attained its freedom at long last. Unlike those that confined in every glass cylinder adorning the metallic grey walls, it had survived the impact by hardening its carapace – an ability that it was forced to evolve when being experimented ruthlessly upon by the numerous scientists. Those scientists littered around the floor and in the hallway, scorched beyond recognition.

Whatever had happened to the interstellar research vessel during the transition to their home world, it did not know and had no actual motivation to find out. There was no point of learning why the craft was forced to crash land onto the nearest habitable world. It wanted to know if any of the marines on board was still alive, however. Since there were lack of bodies belonging to the marines, it was very likely that they were still alive – somewhere.

The superstructure that kept the room intact buckled and groaned repeatedly while it slithered around, searching for a way to open the reinforced door. The control next to the door was buzzing hazardously with sparks of electricity.

Sensing that the heavily damaged craft would soon succumb to its grievous wound, the larva squirmed, slithered and weaved through one of the small openings located along all sides of the rooms. Those gaps formed during the violent landing less than half an hour ago. The tunnel was dark and filled with heated steam, but not discomforting to the creature that thrived in inhospitable world.

Soon enough, the larva found its way onto the outer hull and saw what remained of the starship, which was its torturous prison for the past year. There were burning wreckages littered for several miles in all direction. Nothing else besides the quiet trees could be found under the stormy weather, however.

Curling into a perfect ball, the larva rolled down the incline side of the ship and landed onto the thawing snow hundreds of meters below. The abrupt change in temperature stunned it for a fraction of a second before its biology adapted to the cold climate of this new world.

The larva swiftly uncurled once the cold no longer bothered it and made its way towards the untouched wood almost a mile away through thick ice and snow. Half way towards the wood, the interstellar ship it left behind roared in agony and exploded spectacularly. The intense shockwave came forth, ravaged the land and sent it flying. Instinctively, it curled into the ball as it sailed through the air, and its momentum was only stopped when a boulder decided to lend a hand.

Another jolt shocked it miniscule brain. It quivered a minute later and uncurled itself. The first thing it saw was a mushroom cloud forming from where the ship used to be. Whatever stayed within the blast radius was incinerated. It watched the fiery inferno and bathed in the radiation for a moment before turning around and headed away from the spot. Someone would surely come and investigate that, and it didn't want to be there when they did.

For the next several days, the larva wandered about the icy landscape, searching for substances. As the creature gifted with purity of essence, it could devour and assimilate anything organic, strengthening itself through the power of evolution, but sadly, besides the birds sailing above and out of its reach, the land did not provide.

The larva knew the planet it had been stranded on was habitable. This was due to the amount of oxygen constantly invading its microscopic pore. That meant there must be some indigenous carbon-based life form on the planet. It could assimilate such life form with impunity thanked to the prolonged war with the Terran Dominion. That war had forced the Swarm to adapt and evolve in order to combat the threat the humans and their non-biological drones – machines – proposed. Under the guidance of the Queen of Blades after the untimely death of the Overmind, the swarm only grew more ferocious and genocidal.

Speaking of Queen of Blades, her will was no longer imposed upon its feeble psych. Those scientists had somehow severed its telepathic connection to the Swarm while trying to improve upon its evolution in their unique way. What the Terran managed to accomplish during its capture weren't entirely unheard of amongst its brethren, but it knew the Queen of Blades would never allow such corruption into the Swarm and threatened her undisputed rule.

And with the connection to the Queen of Blades severed, its purpose returned to biological perfection as engraved into its genetic makeup since the days the Overmind first revolted against their creator. The Dark Voice still echoed within its mind. The Terran had failed to severe that hidden connection, and it would be their undoing if they believed they had created a perfect and controllable biological weapon.

The larva stopped after another day of fruitless search and decided to gnaw on the surrounding trees instead. Insects could also be found near the root, thus allowed it to acquire much needed sustenance to keep its body from deteriorating. Once it gained enough strength, it decided to burrow into the earth under all the ice to gather more organic materials as well as some minerals.

Months passed before the larva could harvest enough minerals to spawn another Zerg. If it was a drone, evolved specifically for harvesting and gathering resources, it could have acquire enough mineral within a week or so. When the larva returned to the surface, it quickly entered a mitosis state, allowing its cells to divide when sufficient organic matter assimilated. This was one of the improvements introduced into its genetic makeup by the Terran after some ingenuity.

When the splitting was done, the prime larva stared at its duplicate. The duplicate while had taken on its appearance had a blanked expression. It just sat there, looking into empty space. The mitosis ability was interesting and useful, but it wasn't complete.

During its captivity, it learned that the Terran wanted a biological weapon that would not revolt, and to do so, they would imprint each new larva with a specific ideal and repeated the cycle of mitosis until the final product was fearless with unquestioning loyalty. Once they had such a larva in the end, they would have their army through mass replication. Those scientists would have succeeded in a decade or so, but by then, the war would likely have been lost.

The Queen of Blades was relentless in her vengeance, and with the threat from the Protoss, the Terran Dominion would be overrun in another year or so. Unless something changed, their extinction would be assured. They were desperate, but such notion did not affect the larva the slightest.

The prime larva ordered its spawn to morph into a drone. The larva did so without hesitation, morphing into a drone – the weakest of the Zerg. The drone immediately burrowed into the ground, searching for more minerals and perhaps vespene gas if any could be found below the surface. That was unlikely since the gas appeared to be native to the Koprulu sector from its genetic memory.

Before the Swarm invaded the sector under the Overmind's command, natural minerals such as copper and iron were consumed and assimilated in their path for stronger and harder carapaces, bones, teeth and claws while petroleum was a source of nourishment to accelerate metabolisms. With the discovery of Vespene gas, petroleum was quickly abandoned in favor of a higher energy yield, but petroleum was never forgotten.

While the drone sought out minerals and petroleum deposits, the prime larva resumed its hunt for more sustainable organic matter. Insects and worms while abundant won't be able to further its evolution and helped it reached biological perfection. It would return back to the spot and spawned more drones to speed thing up. Even with a dozens, gathering enough mineral for a hatchery (300 tons) would still take at least a few weeks.

By the time the larva and its mindless drones had gathered enough minerals, it stumbled upon a small village at least 20 miles away. It watched the town from an overviewing spot, trying to search for any sign of sentries, cloaking or otherwise. The world was populated by what it had immediately assumed to be Terran, but the lack of marines and turrets around the village made it extremely wary. It decided that assaulting the village would likely alert the Terran to its presence before its forces could be assembled.

The larva continued to build up away from the village, but with even more haste. It spent every ounce of organic materials it taxingly managed to gather to spawn more drones, and whenever it was hunting for subsistence, it also attempted to locate a defense position for a permanent base. It also ran into some wild animals once the cold weather cleared up, which it tried to hunt, but found the effort was futile. It was too slow and lacked any proper offensive capabilities.

After some consideration, the larva decided to spawn some Zergling to hunt down animals. For Zerglings to be spawned, a spawning pool was required. A spawning pool cost 200 tons of mineral while Zerglings cost 25 minerals each. Zerling came in pair so it cost 50 regardless.

With dozens of drones working without rest, siphoning through the earth for anything harvestable, the amount of minerals gathered was slight more than 600 tons. The larva knew that without a rich mineral deposit, it couldn't amass an army that it needed to take on the Terran before it was discovered. If that was the case, it should have some Zergling for protection.

On order, one of the drones separated from the ground and headed to a small clearing. It made itself comfortable before mutating into a bloated tumor. The tumor grew in size and throbbed violently. It exploded after an hour or so, spraying guts over the ground, revealing a pool with green ooze.

While that was happening, the larva entered mitosis again, replicating itself repeatedly. By the time, it exhausted the amount of organic matter it had stored, it had created six mindless larvae. Once the pool was formed, those six larvae headed to it while the drones started dumping minerals into the pool itself, causing green mist to erupt upwards. It cost 50 minerals for each larva to morph into Zerglings, and with the cost of the spawning pool, the minerals the drones had collected in the past month was expended.

The larvae cocooned themselves around the spawning pool, sucking up the massive amount of genetic materials and minerals from the base. The cocoon grew in size, pulsating with evident movement within, and when half an hour gone but, powerful claws tore through the cocoon, bursting forth Zerglings. The twelve Zergling growled at each other before two started attacking like feral creature.

The prime larva watched the Zerglings while retreating to safety. It did not know if it could control the Zerglings once they were spawned from the larvae it made, and from what they were doing, it appeared that it could not. Before it could get away from the area, the Zerglings stopped fighting and shook their head while using their sharp appendages to carve up the ground. They noticed the larva afterwards and immediately surrounded it.

The larva curled into a ball for defensive purposes, but the assault it expected from the Zerglings never came. It soon learned that the Zerglings still recalled where they came from thus would listen to what it would say for a time. It immediately ordered the Zerglings to go hunt down any animal they came across and brought their kills back to the town. It took a while for the twelve Zerglings to growl and scattered much to the larva's relief.

When the Zerglings disappeared from view, the larva pondered on how to control them so they would not go rogue and attack the hive it would build. It obviously lacked the mental power to do so without evolving into something that could.

It could evolve into a Celebrate, but that meant it would be stuck in one spot forever, not to mention the amount of organic materials, minerals and gases it would require. By the time the larva reached a conclusion, a few Zerglings had returned, bringing with them wild deer and boars. They dumped their kill onto a pile before heading off again. A few growled at each other like they were having a rivalry.

The larva began to engorge itself onto the organic matter. It could only digest so much before its body became too bloated to move. It split itself into several more copies so they could consume the organic matter simultaneously. The amount of animals brought back by the twelve Zerglings dwindled and far in between as the sky darkened, and by the end of the day, one of them dragged back something that the prime larva wanted to avoid at the moment.

It'd brought back a Terran, who clenched a primitive wooden bow tightly in his cold dead hand. His dark widened and fearful eyes framed on his grey bearded face were as lifeless as they came. The prime larva hesitated in consuming a Terran since doing so would alert the others to its presence.

The larvae it had spawned showed no reservation in assimilating the Terran, whatsoever. They were told to eat and split, and so they were doing what they were told without question.

They all eagerly devoured the carcass presented by the Zergling, ripping out bloody chunk of meat with their powerful pincers, leaving only gnawed bones, clothing and tools behind while undergoing mitosis, increasing their numbers exponentially. By the night was over, there would be hundreds of them!

 **– To be continued –**

Just for fun. This might be rated MA due to extreme horror (?). Will update whenever I feel evil enough.


	2. Chapter 2

**– [Evolution Unchained] –  
1**

Several meters beneath the frozen and icy ground, the prime larva – Prime – along with the rest of the Zerg spawns waited silently. Three days had passed and not a single marine could be seen scouting the surrounding woods. It was very odd. Usually when a dozen or so humans got mutilated and dragged off by the Zerg, a heavily armed party of marine would be sent out from the local garrison in order to locate the hive and assess the situation.

The marines would not be able to find the hive since there was none to begin with – at least not on this backwater and primitive planet prior to the untimely crash of the research vessel. The hatchery had not been spawned as Prime did not want to waste the limited resource to spawn one only to have relocated it again. The spawning pool was morphed because Prime needed to speed things up with the help of the Zergling, and out of the twelve Zergling that spawned from the pool, three had vanished.

Whatever happened to those Zergling was of concern, but not so much that Prime would want to waste time and send out a scouting party. It could replace those missing Zergling readily with the resources the Drones had harvested. Having hundreds of Drones scouring the ground sped the mining process greatly.

If those missing Zergling had not encounter any search party, they might have gone rogue – feral – and wandered far away from the group, doing whatever their instinct told them to. If they did encounter the marines, there would certainly be more activities in the immediate vicinity, especially from the nearby human's dwellings. In fact, there would be certainly be more of a commotion if those missing Zergling had gone feral and attacked everything within reach.

Despite the theories, nothing out of ordinary happened in the past few days as far as Prime could tell. It appeared as if the Terran did not care the slightest for their population and settlements, which honestly, wasn't all surprising considering all the usual discords between the Terran colonies on the outer worlds and beyond.

Prime knew this because it had been parted with genetic memories of those that came before. Thanked to the memory, it had witness much in the eons since the Zerg first revolted against their creator. Under the absolute will of the Overmind, there was only harmony and a single goal for the Swarm. Under the Queen of Blades' leadership, there was strife and chaos – directionless and aberration. Perhaps that was because she was originally a Terran.

In truth, Prime found humanity peculiar and contradicting race. Even during its captivity, the scientists bickered constantly on how to proceed with its experimentation and further enhancement. If they had collaborated like a hive mind would, striving towards a single ideal and purpose, their ambition would be realized much sooner. Now, they were all dead.

Prime pondered why it was thinking so much about seemingly random topics as of late. Perhaps it could no longer hear anyone dictating its will and action on this uncharted planet, allowing it to regain its own individuality and a sense of self. Even so, there was still a faint lingering echo in the back of its miniscule mind, telling it to spread out, multiple and assimilate all life in existence, especially the Protoss to reach biological perfection. Perfection was the one and only goal of the Swarm. Without that purpose, Prime wouldn't know what to do at all. Without a purpose, its existence was meaningless.

Still, Prime thought it was redundant for the Dark Voice to tell the Swarm to seek out the Protoss. Since the Swarm's purpose was to assimilate all life form and reach biological perfection, the Protoss would be assimilated as they are part of life after all. That goal was forsaken by the Queen of the Blades, however, and despite her effort to render the Swarm subservient to her will, the original directive lingered within the subconscious of every Zerg. Not even the Terran for their ingenuity could undo the indoctrination brought forth by the Dark Voice when their race was uplifted from their birthplace of Zerus.

Prime spent the next couple of days speculating what the Dark Voice actually was – almost curiously. It knew that any Zerg it spawned and would spawn were enslaved to the Dark Voice, driving them all feral just like every Zerg that the Overmind had spun forth from the Swarm for millennia. There was nothing Prime could do about that, and it didn't want to change the status quo.

The Dark Voice gave it a purpose and a meaning to its otherwise pointless existence.

Once Prime was sure that the Terran wasn't searching to eradicate the Zerg, it resurfaced along with the rest of the Swarm – its brood. Prime decided that it was appropriate to reallocate to a suitable location and form a base. Upon giving its order, the Drones, numbering in the hundreds, collided into each other in a chaotic mess. They were pushing one another out of the way while the Zergling tore a few apart to get to the front of the line.

They stopped moving when Prime gave the order to halt. It requested a few Drones to come forth and mutated into Overlords. Overlords were evolved from a giant space-faring and semi-intelligent creature which had pled to be assimilated into the Swarm. Doing so had prevent their impending extinction and granted the Swarm telepathy, basic psionic power. It wasn't the same as mental link shared by all of the Zerg since the Zerg lacked innate psionic power unlike the Terran and the Protoss – especially the latter.

With the large, bulbous brain armored in bones and cartilage emerging from the cocoon and hovered into the air like bloated hot air balloon, Prime tried to speak to them, seeking a way to coordinate the fledging Swarm with their powerful psionic ability. The Overlords were forthcoming despite realizing their connection to the Zerg no longer there. That mental link was severed by the scientists to prevent theirs specimen communicating to each other and collaborating amongst many other reasons.

The Overlords blanketed the Swarm with their psionic ability and coordinated the Drones and Zerglings to move in one cohesive unit without resulting into anarchy. The Drones autonomously collected all the precious minerals they had mined while the Zergling began scouting the path head, preventing possible ambushes.

Prime rode one of the Overlords to have a clear view of the surrounding landscapes as they headed to the South West, where the mountain towering high into the misty sky. Minerals within those mountains were abundant.

On the way, Prime noticed a gigantic ice wall far to the South. The ice wall looked artificial constructed and impressive enough to warrant attention. To the North remained shrouded in endless mist, however.

The Overlords collectively sensed several ghostly presences within the northern mist and relayed what they were able to scan to the rest of the Zerg, telling them to take precaution. They assured that there were no invisible enemies anywhere on the ground or any kind of electromagnetic waves riding in the air – the kind that Terran used to communicate to one another over vast distances.

The information concerning electronic transmission reinforced Prime's speculation. There was obviously Terran inhabiting this primitive world, but they weren't the Terran that the Swarm had fought against for many, many years. These humans were technological inferior in comparison. Knowing its opponent's technological state did not alter Prime's grand plan the slightest. The new piece of information did made things much easier in the long run, however.

The entire brood migrated over the flowing body of water – river – and into the hilly landscape using the descending snow and frost as cover. In the spacious valley, easily defendable thanked to the elevated ground and rocky terrain, Prime wished to build a thriving hive worthy of the Swarm.

The Overlords ferried much of the broods and minerals into the area over the salty river since grounded Zerg loathed vast amount of moving water. While the Overlords carried out the task, one of the Drones cocooned itself at Prime's behest. The cocoon swelled in size, throbbed and pulsated.

Within an hour and a bit, the engorged cocoon burst violently like an oversized balloon, revealing within the first of many hatcheries to come. Creep swiftly spread outwards from the structure, nourishing the already settled Zerg and strengthened them. With the expansive creep crawling across the rocky terrain, morphing a Spawning Pool to spawn Zergling was much faster than before. An Evolution chamber – a place to evolve Zerg further – was also morphed from one of the Drones.

After giving orders to the Overlords, which passed them to the Drones and Zergling via telepathy, Prime latched onto the evolution chamber to analyze its genetic makeup. It was very much Zerg, but there was many strains that were alien in origin. Those strains were mostly fractured or incomplete. Prime tried to fix those strains using Evolution Chamber and spawned several larvae via the hatchery with the modified genetic code to see what would happened, but those larvae either went feral or died agonizingly.

Self-preservation came with individual awareness, thus Prime did not want its fate to be a pool of blood coated with slimy gory guts. It stopped trying to mend its genetic makeup after a couple days more days of failure. During that time, the Drones had managed to mine the side of the vast mountain and gained unrestricted access to the mineral embedded within. In contrast, the Zerglings were very bored while burrowing in the ground.

The Zergling had waited for something to happen, but nothing did. Some did wander around the area, searching for anything to sharpen their claws, but always returned to the hatchery and burrowing since the area was enclosed by rivers and mountains. If they were of normal Zerg, they would stay in one spot until they day they died when no new order was given. They were behaving very much like self-aware individuals, and whether that was a good thing or not remained to be seen.

Prime curled into a ball and rolled towards the hatchery. The new larvae were ready, and with minerals and nutrients fed directly into the hatchery, where larvae could morph into any kind of Zerg. Sadly, the only Zerg that they could morph into with available minerals was Zergling. Anything else cost vespene gas, which the world had none so far. Petroleum was also lacking. That was a big problem.

The Overlords relayed that the knowledge that petroleum commonly found in arid landscape such as desert. Since this area covered entirely by snow throughout the years, the likelihood of an oil reserve in the earth was exceedingly rare. Since none of the Zerg knew the geography of the planet, Prime decided to move onto another matter – shoring up the base defenses in case of invasion.

Spore Crawler and Spine Clawer were defensive structures, and both could be morphed from Drones if sufficient minerals and biomass were provided. Minerals could be mined in the mountain or within the earth, but biomass had to be harvested from indigenous life form.

Prime was sure that the remote planet weren't colonized by any of the Terran Dominion's forces despite there were humans villages about. With that in mind, those small villages were ripped for the picking. It gave no more further thought on the matter and ordered several larvae wandering around the hatchery to cocoon and morph into Zergling. They stopped mutating when the number of Zergling reached fifty or so, giving Prime decent size hoard.

With the Overlords coordinating the brood from high above, they filed into several lines. Prime boarded one of the Overlords to overseer the Zerglings below. Prime knew it wasn't a commander, but currently, there were no commander available so it would do what it had, and with the lack of resistance from the Terran so far, the hunt would be in full swing.

 **– To be continued –**

Current place settled by the Zerg is North West of the Wall and South-East of the Frost fangs. They are in the mountain ranges next to the Bay of Ice. It is on the opposite side of the Haunted Forest (Where Bran is), and the Bay of Seals, where the army of undead were. Story takes place in season 6.


	3. Chapter 3

There are no "good" Zerg, at least not intentionally. Don't you get tired of reading the same carbon copy of the story you have been reading hundreds of time before?

 **– [Evolution Unchained] –  
2**

"Be quiet. It will hear us," a dark-haired teenager with round brown eyes hushed his sister while gripping his wooden spear tightly. The spear continued to quiver in his hands regardless of his effort.

They were both hiding behind a tall ancient tree and from the view of a four-legged creature no one had ever seen before. It was about the size of a large dog, reaching one meter in height. It possessed strange webbed feet and two claw-like appendage protruding from each side of their muscular shoulder. It was obviously a predator from the way it had chased and mowed down an escaping deer and proceeded to mutilate it with savagery unseen of by any wild animals of the North.

The creature did not consume its kill, however. It merely tore the carcass into bloody pieces, repainting the icy snow in a deep shade of red like an artist experimenting with a new canvas.

"We should leave, Hamel," the young girl beseeched. She was terrified of the demonic beast. In the past couple of weeks, a dozen adults had gone missing, depleting much of the able bodies of the village. The free folk believed they had been spirited away by the Others and their Wight during their daily hunt, but a few hunters who returned sighted carnivorous beasts that could outpaced even horses.

"Shush," Hamel hissed between his teeth. "If we try, it will chase us down. You saw what happen to the deer we were hunting, didn't you, Nyrre?"

Nyrre shivered at the thought. The demonic beast outran the deer with ease, encircled it several times tauntingly. Once it had its fun, the deer was dismembered by the beast's razor sharp claws. Her stomach remained unsettled at the memory.

"We will return to the village when it leaves," Hamel assured whisperingly. His voice was overshadowed by the growling of the creature. He would not dare to take a peek from his hiding spot so he used his gift to enter the mind of a small bird, overviewing the area above. When the beast wandered to their hiding spot, he used the bird to lure the beast away through excited chirping.

The strategy worked, and like a mindless animal, the Zergling rushed to the sound. The bird flew into the wood, taking the Zergling along with it. Hamel soon lost the connection to the bird and forced to return to his body. He gave a light nudge to his younger sister, telling her to hurry and leave. They both headed towards their village as the snow descended, masking their footsteps.

Nyrre gripped her brother's arm tightly when the chilling wind rattled the bony branches of the towering trees. She looked around, brushing her long brown hair against her shoulders. Something white and pale stirred in those woods. "I think it's following us, Hamel."

"You're just seeing things," Hamel assured and pulled her along. If the demonic beast had seen them, it would chase them down without pause. With his wooden spear and bow used for hunting deer, he did not believe he could kill it. He could, however, distract it long enough for his sister to get away.

The distinctive sound of clanging metal plates caused him to snap towards the eerie forest. His dark eyes scanned back and forth, wondering what else might be watching them besides the Old Gods. The Others had passed through here no longer ago, slaughtering everything in sight and desecrated the sanctity of the dead. They were heading towards the Storrold's Point to the East from their movement, and had not returned since.

When a shadow emerged from the dark of the wood, Hamel told his sister to run. It was a Wight, one of a few that were left behind by the Others during their slaughter. The Wight took a step forwards, sliding between the trees and landing its white eyes upon Hamel. Its dislocated arm dangling from its shoulder, but the iron axe still gripped tightly in its hand.

Hamel steadied himself and steadfast his wooden spear. His heart thumped wildly in his chest, pumping blood to his legs, demanding him to flee. He would not flee, not until his sister got safely away. She was running as fast as she could towards the village.

The Wight groaned and dragged itself towards Hamel, slowly and surely. With every step it planted on the snow, Hamel stepped two back to keep his distance and slowed his breathing. They could sense his warmth from his steamy breath, but without the Others, the Wight usually moved at glacier pace. That could change quickly if they got too close.

Hamel did not want to engage the Wight unless he must. Fighting one meant certain death as they could not be killed just like their masters. Once he was far enough, he turned to check if his younger sister had gotten safely away. She ran back to him with ghastly expression.

"What are you doing?" Hamel hissed, but before she could answer, a demonic beast appeared behind her. The creature was charging, and would reach her before she could reach him. He rushed towards her aid and threw his spear forwards, but the beast did not make any attempt to evade. It crashed into the creature with all of its momentum, but failed to penetrate its skin.

The Zergling was still stunned for a fraction of a second before changing its target. In its eyes and mind, Hamel was more of a threat. It launched itself at Hamel ignoring the prey it was chasing for the last few minutes. He rolled to the side, letting it passed and encircled around. That was when the Wight charged and attacked it.

Iron axe dug deep into Zergling's shoulder, forcing out an anguish squeal. When the axe was retreated, the Zergling thrashed itself and growled at the one who had injured it. The Wight reciprocated by raising its iron axe, readying for another strike.

Seeing the two monsters about to clash, Hamel grabbed his sister's arm and pulled her away. With them preoccupied, they could escape back to the village. A loud roar echoed the area, signaling the battle. He looked back and saw the four-legged creature launched itself at the Wight without any concern for its wellbeing. Its two claw-like appendages surged forwards and pierced into the Wight's body.

The Wight paid that no mind to the fatal blow and severed one of the appendages before attempting to behead the creature. The iron axe embedded into the Zergling's neck again and again, but the demonic beast did not succumb to its grievous wound. Blood continued to spurt out of the wound while the Zerg used its claw to tear apart the Wright, starting with its dislocated arms.

"Are they both Wight?" Nyrre asked while panting heavily. With adrenaline rushing through her veins, her fear was entirely forgotten.

"I don't know," Hamel responded when the Zergling used its body to knock the Wight onto the ground before unleashing its fury. "The only sure thing is that they aren't normal. If they can take each other out then it is good for us. Let's hurry before one of them win."

Hamel and Nyrre would have able to escape the area if another Zergling did not block their path towards their village. This one was less aggressive than the first two they had come across. The creature did not charge at them immediately, but took its time to scrutinize them in great detail.

"How many of them are there?" Hamel uttered. With his bow useless in close combat, the small knife by his belt was all he had left. His sister also had her knife, but she was not adept at using it. He drew his weapon nonetheless. His sister did the same. The weapon shook in her trembling hands.

"Are we going to die here?" Nyrre asked.

Hamel did not answer her. Being born as a Free Folk, there was a very good chance that they would die before they reached their 20s. Due to the harshness of the icy North, there weren't enough food to feed everyone, causing them resort raiding the villages south of the walls before the return of the Others and their Wight. Many Free Folk went with Mance on the promise of better life and away from the threat of the Others, but that promise amounted to nothing.

The Zergling finally charged. Hamel bravely did the same, but he was send flying back against the snow with his head spinning. The creature landed onto of him, bearing all its weight onto his body. He tried to stab it several times with his knife, but the blade failed to pierce any significant depth through its tough skin. It was like its skin was made of chainmail.

Hamel screamed when one of its claws protruding from his shoulder pierced through his forearm to stop his assault. The other deadly claw around to punch into his neck, but it stopped before it could draw any blood. It was as if the creature was frozen. Using the distraction, he aguishly pulled his forearm free and resumed his stabbings. The blade finally dug deep into to creature's eye. It was the only soft spot that he had found.

Hamel would blind the other eyes as well, but his sister was wailing in pain. She covered one of her eyes and shook her head repeatedly, allowing him to understand why the demonic creature had stopped its assault. Nyrre was more gifted than he was, and the reason why she went hunting with him because she could capture any wild animals without killing them.

Without Nyrre controlling its mind, the Zergling resumed its assault, albeit with great confusion to what just happened. In its confusion, Hamel managed to break free, but before he could get away, his leg was pierced. It dragged him towards it through the injured legs. His sister tried to take control of it again, but the shock to her mind by his action had left her rather shaken.

He snapped his eyes closed when he realized there was no way to escape. This was likely the fate of the missing adults for last couple of weeks. At least he would not see his sister get torn apart. The Zerg froze up again before delivering the final blow. He looked to his sister, but it wasn't her doing. She was crying while holding her eyes. The phantom pain was still there.

Above him, Hamel saw a float creature hovering in the air without any kind of support. It was as big as a large dwelling with elongated appendages hung from the underbellies. There were growling all around him, causing him to search out for it.

The battle between the Zergling and Wight also came to an end from further back. Despite the injuries the Zergling unleashed upon the Wight through its ferocity, the reanimated human did not stay dead. It only stopped fighting when half a dozen Zergling swarmed over it and tore its body into pieces within a second.

Prime on board of an Overlord wondered what that strange Terran was. It appeared to be infested, but not by the hyper-evolutionary virus that slowly turned them into an **_Aberration_** – an extreme mutated human due to the infection. Seeing that the severed limb of the Wight still moved, it was something else entirely.

The Overlord also relayed what happened to one of the feral Zergling. It was being controlled similar to under the influence of a psionic dominator the Terran had come up with to influence feral Zerg. The best term for the phenomenon was possession, however. It was as if some unseen entity was suppressing its mind and controlling its action.

The fifty Zergling plus three previously feral ones crowded around the two humans. From Prime's point of view, they were a boy in his sixteen or seventeen and a girl in her thirteen or fourteen. The both of them were completely speechless. The girl was more frightful while covering one of her eyes. Overlord scanned her and found the phenomenon originated from her, and it was precendent to examine her in an evolution chamber. She might have an ability that could benefit the Zerg.

Prime agreed. The Overlords were extremely loyal to the Swarm. During many periods of strife brought on by Kerrigan and her eradication of the Celebrates after the defeat of the Overmind at the hand of the Protoss, the Overlords attempted to keep the Zerg organized, but the effort was futile in the end. Much of the Swarm reverted to feral state when not under control of some higher entity.

"Nyrre," Hamel grunted and dragged himself towards his sister. His touch broke her out of her trembling state of terror.

"I don't want to die, Hamel," Nyrre uttered desperately.

"Don't worry," Hamel assured. "Remember what I told you when our parents passed away."

"You said…. You… will always be by my side?" Nyrre responded.

"Yes, I will always be by your side, dear sister," Hamel responded with a smile. Blood continued to ooze out of his injured leg and arm, but he kept his expression up. He would keep that expression until the darkness overwhelmed his senses.

Prime did not understand their speech since it was not the same as the usual Terran's spoken language, but it could see those two human have some kinds of familiar connection. Still, it needed to understand this world's language eventually. This was a good time.

With a single mental command, amplified by the Overlord, the Zergling swarmed over the two, dragging them apart without harming them. The young girl shrieked and thrashed, but her effort only cause the razor claws to dug deeper into her skin. She watched as the Overlord sent down a small worm about half a meter long. There were four pincers in front of its mouth.

Prime hissed at Nyrre before turning to the Hamel. The Zergling forced Hamel onto the snow, breaking his arms and legs in the process. He screamed in pain, but none of them relented. Prime slithered over the Hamel's back and crawled towards his neck. Its pincers clicked before they punctured into the boy's head, killing him in front of his sister.

Nyrre shrieked in horror at her brother's death.

Under the terrifying scream from the girl, Prime consumed Hamel's head and carefully deciphered the acquired memory in the brain. Most of the memory would be lost during the process without the help of the evolution chamber, but Prime would gain useful information concerning the world's populace with the aid of the Overmind.

The rest of the body was consumed by the Zergling, much to the terror of Nyrre. She passed out before her brother was fully devoured by monsters. Unlike her brother, she would be cocooned in a chrysalis to fully map her ability, and if it was useful, it would be incorporated into the Swarm.

So far, it was.

In fact, Prime was surprised that it gained a new unique strain knowing as Skinchanger after devouring the man named Hamel. The newfound ability allowed it to possess any of the Zergling under its control in its weakened state, but if it consumed more Terran with similar genetic mutation, that ability would strengthen, allowing it to possess stronger Zerg like Hydralisk.

Skinchanger was possession without psionic potential – a step towards perfection!

 **– To be continued –**


	4. Chapter 4

Zerg doesn't really talk. They communicated telepathically amongst each other. It's also faster and more accurate.

 **– [Evolution Unchained] –  
3**

Prime tested out its newly gained ability – Skinchanging – the instant it returned to an Overlord, which it used as a command center to watch over its current brood. Zerg dwelled into mindless feral state when not being controlled by an entity with higher brain function, but thanked to its genetic modification by the Terran scientists, the Zerg spawned from Prime retained elementary sense of self. As such, Prime had to communicate with the Zergling on the ground in order to take control. The struggle within the collective hive mind was brief and unique. The Zergling quickly yield to its superior.

Prime was superior. It could think strategically and logically.

The sensation of being a Zergling while retaining its larvae form was very odd. Prime could feel the snow shifting beneath its feet and the metallic taste of blood streaming down its jaw despite still remaining in the Overlord, safe and protected. The numerous Zergling around Prime growled and snarled, waiting for the orders that emanated from the Overlords hovering in the sky, which became silence.

Prime followed its new primal instinct and growled as well, scenting the crispy, frosty air. The trails left by Hamel and Nyrre led straight to their small village a couple of mile away, shrouded by ancient trees of the Haunted Forest. Prime learned who the two Terran younglings – male and female – were after it'd devoured the brain of the boy. Much of the memories it gained from Hamel were lost due to its invasive method, but fairly a large amount of information about the world was retained. The information was shared within the Swarm, but only the Overlords made any use of it.

From the memory the Overlords untangled and deciphered, the immediate region was populated mainly by primitive humans, who called themselves as the Free Folk. They had been dwelling in the icy north at least eight thousand years, but recent incursion by another species known as the Others had pushed all of them further and further south. The Free Folk desired to cross the massive ice barrier erected since the time of the Children and into the Seven Kingdoms, where the land was safer.

The Zerg desired no such safety. They thrived in harsh condition, especially when predators were within reach, allowing them to forcefully evolve to become better – natural selection at its finest.

Prime let out another growl, but this one aimed directly at the sky. An Overlord rotated in the air. Upon establishing a telepathic connection, Prime was recognized despite its current Zergling form. Prime gave the order for Nyrre to be taken back to their base by one of the Overlords while the rest head onwards.

The Overlord obeyed with some suggestions on using her genetic materials to evolve a Wargling through the Evolution Chamber and Spawning Pool.

Wargling was a new type of Zerg that could transfer its consciousness to another host. It was a form of mind control similar to psionic, which the Zerg severely lacked. Prime agreed wholly, understanding the capability of inciting chaos inside enemy camps, but more samples were needed in order to perfecting the Wargling.

The Swarm would do that.

Knowing that neither the Terran nor the Protoss had touched this world, the Swarm hastened its march to seek out resources and genetic materials in this frozen wasteland. Fifty plus Zergling galloped across the terrain with Prime at its head, hunting down any critters big and small they could find to assimilate.

Almost all wild animals like boars, deer, birds, and rabbits Prime encountered were already indexed in the Evolution Chamber thanked to their extensive war with the Terran Dominion, but having more genes to experiment upon was not a bad thing.

When the Swarm reached the dwellings, the Zerg came to a halt. Almost every Zerglings burrowed into the ground, through ice and snow. They waited within he ground while Prime along with three escorts encircled the small village, calculating its outer and inner defenses with great inspection.

The Overlords flying high above the village scanned the immediate area, giving a strategic overview of the ground. There were a total of 253 Terrans detected within scanning range. Half of the Terrans were armed and designated as combatants. None were marked as dangerous entities. The Overlords advised to assault the village while the inhabitants were oblivious to the Swarm's presence.

Prime consented, giving the orders to go ahead. The Zergling immediately sprung from the ground and rushed at the village in one gigantic wave with Prime staying at the back. While it had no fear of death, it did have a concept of self-preservation, and those in frontline had a much greater chance of dying. Such a concept was usually associated with Celebrates or something similar like the Queen of Blade.

Like Prime had expected, the slaughter it unleashed upon the Free Folks was immerse.

The men patrolling the village had no idea what was kind of demons were charging at them and fired as much arrows as they could muster. Those arrows made of wood and bronze, far too primitive to even take down one Zergling. The only thing they did was embedded into the Zergling's reinforced carapace and activated their frenzy mode.

In frenzy mode, Zergling's speed increased several folds along with their ferocities, and by the time they reached their attackers, the first few Zergling leaped into the air and used their weight to crush the men under stone and snow on the way down. Before the survivors could let out a wailing scream of pain and agony, their limbs were torn apart by powerful claws. They were ripped to pieces within seconds.

The Zergling didn't feast on their kill. They weren't hungry. Instead, they rushed to the next target in a swarm once their last target was nothing more than a pool of gory blood. Prime also joined in the brutal slaughter, feeling its teeth sunk into soft flesh beyond worn leathers and animal hides.

"Run! Get away! Help me!"

"What are these demons!?"

"Shoot them! Shoot them! They are too fast!"

"No, no! Get off me! Nooo!"

Prime heard many things during its frenzy. The gurgling of bloods filled the air as men and women and children fell under its powerful claws and teeth. Screams of terror quickly overshadowed all sounds and noises, surfacing some sensations deep within its genetic memory. The sensations only drove its frenzy onwards.

The snapping of bowstrings and whizzing of bronze spears and swords dwindled to a few dozens, and by the time it reached only a handful, the Free Folk scattered, running for their lives from monsters that could not be killed. More than 150 of them flee into the surrounding woods, abandoning everything on their person to lighten themselves. The Zergling gave chase, mauling down the slowest first, which were usually children. Almost all of them were crushed to death instead of being ripped apart.

Prime almost gave chase due to its frenzy state, but managed to realize if the Zergling scattered all over the Haunted Forest, it would take a while for the Overlord to collect them all again. From the battles it'd remembered, the Zergling were weak individually, but together, they were strong. Sticking together was a must.

"My leg! My fucking legs!" the man cried out nearby, holding his bloody stump with a bloody stump for a hand. The Zergling that were dismembered him had stopped just like every Zergling in sight, including the one that were chasing children. The Overlord asserted control and suppressed their frenzy nature at Prime's request.

Prime growled at the wailing man, and the instant it did, the Zergling nearby swarmed over him and rip him into shred. That action caused many heavily wounded Free Folks to clench their mouth, holding in their agony. Some unable to despite their effort and was promptly killed by the nearest Zergling. It was this time that the Zergling began to feast on some of the corpses much to the horrors of the people.

"Monster..."

"Are we all going to be eaten…?"

"I don't want to die. Please, please, don't kill me."

"Mummy, wake up," a small child, barely eight from her appearance, called out and tried to wake up a headless woman soaked in blood.

Prime clicked its jaw and approached the girl, recalling her name was Olla through Hamel's memory. She continued to sob, not paying it any attention even when it loomed over her. Her sobbing stopped when she joined her mother on the ground in the same state. After a few more mishaps, not even a sound was heard from the Free Folk. They covered and cradled their head tremblingly.

When Prime found it had asserted its control over the brood, it ordered some of the Zergling to move out in a group under the watchful eyes of an Overlord and hunt down the Free Folk that had ran. They had the permission to kill any that they encountered, which they did with great efficiency.

By nightfall, every single living creature in one mile radius around the village was dead and hauled back by the Zergling. The corpses were piled up while many of them had their skull cracked open.

Prime assimilated as much memory as possible with its actual body – the larvae. Its Skinchanging ability also improved with each new genetic strain it gained, allowing it reach a much higher state. Almost all of the Free Folk had the skin changing ability, but the majority of them were dormant. Their children might reactivate those genes in the future.

The Overlord was herbivores originally, but the Overmind did alter their physiology to adapt, thus they could consume the corpses. They simply choose not until Prime requested one of them to do so. It was necessary to advance the goal of the Swarm, and the Overlord that volunteered was the one that had been ferrying Prime the entire day.

As a race, the Overlords were already gifted with psionic potential. Using the new assimilated genetic material, the Overlord could scan and determine which of the Free Folk they had not killed had latent potential, waiting to be unlocked. It examined each of the captives in great depth, relaying all the info it processed to Prime with a few suggestions.

When all 31 specimens were scanned, Prime ordered more than half of them killed. Those people that lacked any use to the Swarm were massacred, and those that were of use were too shock to even utter a single sound. Small sobs and whimpers started as one by one being hauled off by Zergling to Prime.

The first person was an old man, who hid in his tent while people were dying around him. His ability was very strong, but he hadn't attempted to take over one of the Zergling yet. The Overlord would not allow him to do so even if he did, and the Zergling would rip him apart should he try.

"Can… can… you hear and understand me?" the old man raised his quivering hand at Prime, who clicked its pincers. It was riding one of the Zergling, making all the captives aware of its status.

Prime gave a nod since its vocal cord was not design to emulate Terran's speeches. It didn't want to talk to a Terran anyway. It tried to access Hamel's memory to learn who this was, but nothing came up. That part of the memory could have been damaged or lost.

"Please tell me what do you want? We will give it to you. Please don't kill any more of us," the old man begged. Prime clicked its pincers a few more times before Zergling swarmed over him. He screamed in terror, knowing full well the gruesomeness that waited for anyone who got swarmed, but the Zergling coated him in mucus, cocooning him. When it was done, an Overlord collected him.

The next one was a young girl, barely sixteen. She was crying the whole time, but her fate was the same as the old man. The one after that was only child, but that did not stop Prime from cocooning him. One by one, 18 Free Folks was turned into a Chrysalis, readying to be transported back to base for analysis in the Evolution Chamber. Their genetic materials would improve the Swarm as a whole.

 **– To be continued –**


End file.
